Difficult for Drivers, Shocking for Stock

The snowball-of-a-low has arrived. On Sunday the chilly southerly winds have been concentrating on the Canterbury and Kaikoura Coast area, and it is still wintery in Southland and Otago. Cold wet windy conditions are forecast to spread onto southern and eastern parts of the North Island on Monday.

MetService meteorologists are now forecasting that the low may well stall and deepen further when it gets between Wellington and Chathams Islands, looping back towards the mainland for a time. This means that, on Tuesday and Wednesday, southerly winds may rise to gale force about the coast and mountains between Banks Peninsular and Mahia Peninsula, and become severe gale force about Cook Strait. With these gales there should be some heavy rain and more snow. Conditions will not ease properly until the low goes away on Friday.

"Already there have been reports of snow in Dunedin, Ashburton, and Christchurch", commented MetService Weather Ambassador, Bob McDavitt. "The combination of strong winds and rain or snow is producing wind chill temperatures below zero. Such conditions are particularly stressful to farming stock at this time of the year with calving and the start of lambing."

The weather is making driving conditions difficult, and MetService road snowfall warnings in effect on Sunday cover Milford Road, Porter's Pass, Lewis Pass, Arthur's and Lewis Passes, Rimutuka Road and the Desert Road. The Ministry of Transport has recently commenced funding a road snowfall warning service for Arthur's and Lewis Pass roads. Latest road snowfall warnings may be found at the http://www.metservice.co.nz web site and anyone may apply from this web site to receive these and other warnings via email.

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